Justin Morneau, above, not only must move on from being a face of the Twins, he also has to replace a Rockies icon in Todd Helton. / Gregory Bull, AP

by Gabe Lacques, USA TODAY Sports

by Gabe Lacques, USA TODAY Sports

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. - There's a degree of inevitability that major league players, even iconic ones, will start anew at some point.

A small number of stars with massive contracts and no-trade clauses and a mutual desire from player and team to remain engaged will stay put.

For about 95% of major league players, however, change is inevitable.

That doesn't feel right when it involves a player closely identified with a team and a city. Nor does it make it easy on the player when years of routine are disrupted and new traditions and cultures must be learned and adhered to after so many years residing in a comfort zone.

And so it goes this spring in the Cactus League for a pair of players with MVP statuettes in their homes, posters with their likenesses adorning countless walls and free dinners and drinks waiting whenever they return to where their legends were made.

For Justin Morneau, the adjustment began in August, when his 11-year run with the Minnesota Twins ended with a trade to the Pittsburgh Pirates, sparking a five-week blur that included a sprint to the National League Division Series.

But his new reality did not truly sink in until he arrived at Colorado Rockies training camp. Given a two-year, $12.5million contract to replace another icon, Todd Helton, Morneau felt out of sorts almost immediately after realizing he had traded in the beaches and strip malls of Fort Myers, Fla., for the chaparral and strip malls of Scottsdale, Ariz.

The usually rote exhibition opener took on an odd hue as Morneau jogged to first base at the Rockies' space-age Salt River Fields complex.

"I've been going to Fort Myers for 14 or 15 years," Morneau said of the Twins' spring training base. "And then to run out there the other day was definitely different for me. Different stadium, different feel. It was a new experience. But it was a good experience, a good nervousness, some good energy."

Down the Red Mountain Freeway in Tempe, David Freese can relate.

He doesn't have an American League MVP trophy like Morneau, who beat out the New York Yankees' Derek Jeter for the 2006 honor. Freese's defining statuettes are MVP awards for the 2011 National League Championship Series and World Series - recognizing not sustained excellence, but short bursts of brilliance that pushed the St. Louis Cardinals to a championship.

The honors linked him inextricably to a town that revels in its considerable baseball history.

"You win the World Series and you go and celebrate a bit, and you start to understand," Freese said. "You get a chance to do what we did, in that type of city, that type of environment, that's what you're going to get.

"St. Louis fans are die-hard baseball fans. A little bit into the winter, it kind of hits you what you accomplished."

Now, Freese is with the Los Angeles Angels, traded in November for a package headlined by speedy center fielder Peter Bourjos.

It's a different shade of red, just a few notches down the color palette from the Cardinals color he has worn for most of his life.

***

Time for next chapter

Freese grew up in Wildwood, Mo., just 30 miles from St. Louis' Busch Stadium, though his path to local legend was circuitous.

He quit baseball after high school, enrolling at the University of Missouri, but not playing the game. Some lobbying from coaches and local peers - including a hulking first baseman named Ryan Howard - persuaded him to give baseball another shot.

A winding path through collegiate baseball ultimately earned him a ninth-round selection in the 2006 draft, by the San Diego Padres. Fortunately for the Cardinals, the Padres were deep at third base at the time - remember Kevin Kouzmanoff? - and dealt Freese to St.Louis in 2007.

Four years later, his life would never be the same.

His first season as a major league regular, 2011, was at best nondescript. Freese batted .297, hit 10 home runs and produced a .791 on-base-plus-slugging percentage (OPS) for a team that in late August was counting the days until an expected winter showdown between the franchise and its icon: first baseman Albert Pujols, who was bound for free agency.

Then the script was flipped.

Somehow, the Cardinals found a 21-8 finishing kick to claim the NL wild card on the last day of the season.

The end of the Pujols era was deferred, and Freese was about to become a household name in St.Louis.

He homered in Games 1, 2 and 6 of the NLCS, the last one giving St. Louis a lead it did not relinquish in the pennant-clinching game.

The World Series heroics still amaze: a two-out, two-strike, ninth-inning triple, followed by a walk-off home run an inning later. Less memorable, but perhaps no less important: a two-run, game-tying double in the first inning of Game 7.

Yet despite his heroics, Freese didn't necessarily seem long for his hometown club.

As Freese established himself, the Cardinals also were evolving, emerging as perhaps the game's model organization for identifying, drafting and, most important, developing young players.

So just as Freese got his legs about him, the franchise was developing a passel of potential replacements.

After the Cardinals fell just short of a second World Series title in three years, losing in six games to the Boston Red Sox, it was clear that two of these players would seal Freese's fate.

Matt Carpenter, drafted in the 13th round in 2009, produced a phenomenal 2013 season in which, as a second baseman, he led the NL in hits (199), runs (126) and doubles (55). Kolten Wong, drafted 22nd overall in 2011, was deemed ready after a seamless climb up the minor league ladder, culminating in a 2013 season at Class AAA Memphis in which he batted .303 with and an .835 OPS.

Wong to second, Carpenter to third, Freese out the door, with the only question being, when?

Freese remains grateful that answer was soon.

He was dealt Nov.22, one of the first significant dominoes of the offseason.

"I'm glad it happened early, knowing that this could be a potential occurrence this past winter," Freese, 30, said. "It was good not to sit around for a couple months wondering if I was going to be a Cardinal come February.

"You find out you're an Angel, I was (grinning) ear to ear. It was a great feeling."

It's simple to assume Freese needed a change of scenery. Playing for his hometown team, scrutiny was ramped up, and a single-car accident on Thanksgiving Day in 2012 - Freese swerved to avoid hitting a deer and his car struck a tree, he told police - became a significant local story.

The subpar season that followed didn't help matters.

But Freese is effusive in saying he did not need to get out, a notion advanced by Cardinals general manager John Mozeliak when the deal was consummated.

"A complete blessing," Freese says of his fishbowl existence as a Cardinal. "It's more hectic at times, but everything about it was great. Absolutely everything.

"I'm just taking a bunch of good memories with me - and understanding that this is a business; turn the page, and move on. Being a hometown guy and playing for your team is a rare thing. You add a championship ring to it, that's a special, unique accomplishment. And awesome to be a part of that.

"But it's a new chapter of my life, and that's how I'm doing it."

***

Big shoes to fill

Morneau did not have his Freese-esque postseason moment in Minnesota. The Twins made the playoffs five times in his career but never won a playoff series. And injuries kept him from playing in the 2009 and 2010 postseasons.

That misfortune hardly curtailed his profile in the Twin Cities, where fans swooned for him and the club's matinee-idol catcher, Joe Mauer.

"Joe, because he was from Minnesota, maybe, got the attention, but Justin was just as much the face of the team as Joe was, just as beloved up there.

"It's funny. There's not going to be that talk of who replaces Justin, because it's Mauer. If somebody else were replacing him, it would be huge."

Indeed, Mauer is moving from catcher to first base in the fourth season of an eight-year, $184million contract.

Morneau is the one faced with supplanting a local legend.

The retirement of Helton, the Rockies' franchise leader in almost every significant offensive category, prompted the signing of Morneau.

Helton's shadow isn't exactly fading, either: A week before spring training, the club announced it would retire Helton's jersey Aug.17, part of a three-game series against the Cincinnati Reds that will be a weekend celebration of all things Helton.

"He's a guy who was here forever, that everybody looked up to, that had some of the best offensive years in the history of baseball, not just this franchise," Morneau said of Helton, who retired with 2,519 hits and a lifetime .316 average. "Obviously, he's a guy who means a whole lot and hopefully will go into the Hall of Fame as a Rockie. It's tough to put that in perspective.

"Once the regular season starts and people are running out there and they're used to seeing that No.17 on the field, it's going to be different.

"Being in the AL, I was still aware of what he was doing. But I think it will be different for the fans than it will for me."

Morneau, who hit .278 in 1,278 games with the Twins, has three seasons with 30 or more homers and four of 100 or more RBI but none of either since 2009. Like Mauer, he has been hampered by concussions, but he seems to have turned a corner. After playing 81 games in 2010 and 69 in 2011, Morneau played in 134 games in 2012 and 152 last year.

He remains cautiously optimistic.

"You never know what's going to happen," said Morneau, 32. "You go out with the goal of being healthy. After that, it's kind of beyond your control. I put the work in, I take care of myself.

"Beyond that, I can't control it. Crazy things happen; it's how you deal with them.

"I feel like I've rebounded all right and feel like I can still contribute and help the team win, and that's why I'm here."

Said Cuddyer, "I firmly believe he's going to go out and have a great season."

***

Familiar face

The Angels think the same about Freese. In a clubhouse that's a robust mix of youth and veterans, Freese - who falls somewhere in the middle - has blended in seamlessly.

And he appears focused on reversing what they hope is a one-year decline.

"I think you can see he's focused. He wants it," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. "He wants to definitely try to rebound for what he thought was a subpar year for him last year.

"He looks good. I think he's very comfortable."

If not engaged in a learning process. Freese grew up, personally and professionally, on Stan Musial and Red Schoendienst, Ozzie Smith and Whitey Herzog.

He's getting a crash course in Angels history, inspired by a stirring clubhouse talk given by spring training guest instructor and former outfielder Tim Salmon. Pitcher Chuck Finley was another who parachuted in for a week - though Freese remembers him better as a Cardinal after they acquired him for the 2002 stretch run.

And there's another familiar face to ease the transition: Pujols, who signed a $240million contract six weeks after Freese's 2011 Series heroics.

"He showed me the ropes the first couple of days, but I knew right away this transition would be easy. It's different, having been a Cardinal the last few years. But Albert has gone out of his way to help me, which is cool."

Morneau can relate. Cuddyer is his wingman in the Rockies clubhouse, a reminder of where he was, and a bridge to what might lie ahead.